Squirt guns are well known in many forms in the prior art. Numerous squirt guns and squirting toys are made and have been made over the years for use by persons while swimming in or standing adjacent to a swimming pool, which are adapted to quickly take in water from the swimming pool for squirting. One such toy is called MAX LIQUIDATOR™ and is sold by Prime Time Toys Ltd. This toy, representative of many such squirting toys, is basically comprised of a housing having a nozzle at its squirting end. A piston, which includes a graspable handle, is adapted to slide within the housing so that, when the nozzle end of the housing is submerged in the pool and the piston is pulled backwards, water is drawn into the housing through the nozzle. And when the piston is subsequently forced forwardly, that water is forced from the housing, through the nozzle, towards a target, in a powerful stream.
Additionally, many squirt guns of the prior art are constructed in a manner that entraps air and thereby inadvertently enables those guns to partially float in water, but do not float when no air is entrapped. The degree of such buoyancy is relative to the amount of water that has been taken into the gun and the longevity of such buoyancy is relative to the amount of air leakage from the housing.
There are also floating toy “swimming noodles” in the prior art, which are made of resilient floating closed-cell polymer foam. These toys are used to provide buoyancy to the user while swimming. Because these toys are often left floating in the pool when not in use, their softness eliminates the safety threat that they would otherwise pose.
Further, some have produced squirting toys that illuminate or make sounds when activated. Generally speaking, these toys utilize energy stored in batteries to power the illuminating or sound making device when, for example, a user depresses a button or trigger. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,129 to Esposito “Esposito” and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0247043 to Liao “Liao”, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein in their entireties. However, as the batteries lose power illumination or sound making tends to decrease and eventually fails to work without replacement of the batteries. These systems also require wiring and other electronics offset from the batteries which can fail when exposed to moisture.
Liao further discloses a squirting toy that connects to a hose. When connected to a hose a water driven generator module connected to a water channel receives the flowing water from the hose and thereby generates electricity for an electronic device. Liao's squirting toy is thereby restricted for use by the range of the hose (tether) since electricity can only be generated when the squirting toy receives water from the hose.